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I (and my 6-year-old) really enjoyed this video from Veritasium about the invention of the blue LED. link to this video
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#blueled#shujinakamura#galliumnitride
Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED
Veritasium
21M subscribers • 25 videos on Hallway
- Recommended by 10 people: 10 on Hacker News.
Beginner. No background in the topic needed.
56M views2 years ago10 recommendations
HardwareHistory and cultureElectronicsHistory of computing
The story of the materials science challenges and the persistent engineering effort by Shuji Nakamura that led to the blue LED.
The blue LED was supposed to be impossible—until a young engineer proposed a moonshot idea. Head to brilliant.org/veritasium to start your free 30-day trial, and the first 200 people get 20% off an annual premium subscription. In 2025, we launched the Elements of Truth game on Kickstarter and were thrilled by the response. We’re now in the final stages of production, with Kickstarter rewards shipping soon. If you missed the campaign, you can now pre-order the retail edition through our new website here - ve42.co/BlueLEDs Special thanks to our Patreon supporters! Join this list to help us keep our videos free, forever: ve42.co/PatreonDEB Huge thanks to the UC Santa Barbara Materials Dept (ssleec.ucsb.edu/) for taking us around. Thanks to Álvaro Bermejillo Seco for reviewing the science. Thanks to these especially helpful sources: Nobel Prize Biography - Shuji Nakamura - ve42.co/NakamuraNobel Johnstone, B. (2015). Brilliant!. Prometheus Books. - ve42.co/Johnstone2015 Nakamura, S., Pearton, S., & Fasol, G. (2010). The Blue Laser Diode: The Complete Story. Springer. - ve42.co/Nakamura2010 ▀▀▀ References: youtube.com/watch?v=O8M2z2hIbag youtube.com/watch?v=TGUteH93xNo youtube.com/watch?v=idwKHQEw78g youtube.com/watch?v=yoTALRhAqWc Touchstone, L. A. (2022). Nick Holonyak Jr. University of Illinois. - ve42.co/Touchstone2022 Perry, T. S. (1995). The Unsung Inventor. IEEE Spectrum. - ve42.co/Perry1995 Chabay, R. & Sherwood, B. (2011). Matter & interactions (4th ed.), S2: Semiconductors. Wiley. - ve42.co/ChabaySherwood How MOCVD Works via Aixtron - ve42.co/MOCVD Vangala, S. R., et al. (2019). Epitaxial growth of ZnSe on GaAs. Journal of Crystal Growth. - ve42.co/Vangala2019 Nakamura, S. (1991). GaN Growth Using GaN Buffer Layer. JJAP. - ve42.co/Nakamura3rd1991 Amano, H., et al. (1989). P-Type Conduction in Mg-Doped GaN w/ LEEBI. JJAP. - ve42.co/Amano1989 Huang, M., et al. (2021). Defects in Mg–H‐Codoped GaN. Physica Status Solidi. - ve42.co/Huang2021 Additional References: ve42.co/BlueLEDRefs ▀▀▀ Images & Video: Lighting the World via UCTVInsight on YouTube - ve42.co/UCTVep2 & ve42.co/UCTVep3 Palo Alto Times 1971 Article via Newspapers.com - ve42.co/Newspapers Nick Holonyak, Jr. and the LED via UIUC on YouTube - ve42.co/HolonyakIllinois The Original Blue LED via Science History Institute on YouTube - ve42.co/OGBlueLED Maxfield, M. (2022). Compound Semiconductors. EE Journal. - ve42.co/Maxfield2022 M. Stutzmann, et al. (2001). Playing with Polarity. pss (b). - ve42.co/Stutzman2001 Isamu Akasaki in 1995 via Andrey Nikolaev on YouTube - ve42.co/AsakiNikolaev Pioneer TX-610 Stereo Tuner via Ian Marino on YouTube - ve42.co/StereoMarino Shuji Nakamura via EPO on YouTube - ve42.co/NakamWhy it's here
10 people recommend thisWhat people say. Highly recommended for its fascinating and detailed look into the history, materials science, and engineering perseverance behind the blue LED.
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…technology. Together with SiC, these are the two game changing power devices with wideband semiconductor technology that only maturing recently. Heck, even the Nobel price winning blue LED discovery was made feasible by GaN. Watch the excellent video made by Veritasium for this back story 1. 1 Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED: link to this video…
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The Veritasium youtube channel has a few interesting videos related to this topic: This one is on IQ: link Pay attention to the stats on how IQ correlates to success (near the end). This one is about becoming an expert: link This one is about someone who just worked harder than everyone else: link to this video
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Veritasium had this video about the history of sewing machines recently 1. I remember watching it and ended up in awe of how something that we take for granted took a journey of several thousand years to be get invented. While I'm thinking about it, his recent video about the development of blue LEDs 2 is very interesting as well if you haven't seen it. 1 link 2 link to this video
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I suggest you watch this video as well, is goes into great detail on what it took to make the blue LED. It's quite fascinating. link to this video
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And we only have blue LEDs due to the sheer stubbornness of Shuji Nakamura. If you haven't already heard the tale of its development, head over here and enjoy: link to this video
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…nk that this is a general trend. Various fields tend to get into groupthink, and it is hard for people who buck the trend to pursue the usual academic path to research. But usually the herd has gone down a wrong turn, and it is up to a random rebel to make the next key discovery. For an extreme example, I recommend Veratasium's video on blue LEDs, link to this video . But despite how extreme that example is, it does seem to be a trend. The direction that the herd has gone has been generally well-explored simply because a herd of researchers have already gone there. If they've found nothing, you'll probably find nothing either. So you have to back up. Sadly, the way that academia is structured discourag…
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The guy who figured out how to make a blue LED (which was world changing), also worked every single day . Fascinating story: link to this video
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In real life, the inventor of the blue led was basically scammed by his company. The company earned a lot of money and basically shifted the whole business to produce blue leds. Veritasium recently made a video about that link to this video I think this illustrate another point: patents should protect inventors, not companies. Companies shouldn't be able to amass a "portfolio" of patents to bully their competition either.
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And yet there are stories of people ignoring the company direction, continuing work, and saving the company. See: The Blue LED link to this video So it’s not clear that the company knows better. Feels like educated guesses but a lof of luck involved.
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Is this true? What were the revenues of lighting companies before compared to now? Do we count TV screen makers because they’re LEDs as well? I just watched Veritasium’s video on how LEDs were indented and the companies making LEDs saw exponential increase in revenue. link to this video Basic Google search tells me the lighting industry has experienced high growth due to the invention of LED lighting.
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I doubt you can attribute Shuji Nakamura's success entirely to the "Japanese model". link to this video The man was a genius, and his success is mostly his alone.
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And you can thank this guy for the LEDs that made it possible for you to even read about it on a screen link to this video